I read a news feed about Prince William being included with a Royal Navy visit to the Falklands this spring. The Argentine President is apparently upset about the situation. I think it is a whole lot of hot air over nothing.
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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I don't think it is hot air at all. When the oil finds become proven & oilfields are setup, even though "money talks & honesty walks", there is no way in hell the current, or future for that matter, British Forces have the capacity to hold or even retake them shoud the Argentenians attack once more.

We may have the air power & the ground forces with the same determination as in 1982 but without aircraft carriers, it is not possible.

Can you see the French taking their carriers into a war zone just so that British aircraft can land/take off?
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The Daring class are often considered the most powerful air-defence warships in the world. The ship's capabilities centre on the SAMPSON Multi Function Radar which can detect hundreds of targets out to a distance of 400 km (250 mi) and the Sea Viper missile system. In addition Daring's S1850M 3D air surveillance radar is capable of detecting 1,000 targets up to 400 km (250 mi). It is also capable of detecting outer atmosphere objects such as ballistic missiles

Before this announcement, the Argentine were already saber rattling about the Malvinas. They are working on getting most South American countries to refuse port access to ships stopping at the Falklands. Remember when the Eqyptians closed access to Aqaba back in 1967....

Sirius is right, there is the possibility of oil and natural gas finds around the Falklands -- and, notwithstanding that the long time residents of the Falklands (the Brits can trace British habitation there to before the Argentine was independent), the Argentines want 'their' Malvinas 'liberated'.

I read a news feed about Prince William being included with a Royal Navy visit to the Falklands this spring. The Argentine President is apparently upset about the situation. I think it is a whole lot of hot air over nothing.

The Daring class are often considered the most powerful air-defence warships in the world. The ship's capabilities centre on the SAMPSON Multi Function Radar which can detect hundreds of targets out to a distance of 400 km (250 mi) and the Sea Viper missile system. In addition Daring's S1850M 3D air surveillance radar is capable of detecting 1,000 targets up to 400 km (250 mi). It is also capable of detecting outer atmosphere objects such as ballistic missiles

I'm sure she can. However today that can be useless. If I were the type to plan an attack on a surface ship, I'd find out how many anti-missiles she carries. All I need do is throw a few more drones at her than she has ammo then follow up with real bombs. The drones can have electronics on board that makes a single target look like multiple targets. The price of drones is cheap today, the price of a carrier isn't. Of course they need not be drones they could all have warheads. Another possible is to find out how fast she can launch anti-missiles and how many launchers she has. I just need to send more missiles than she can defend against in a given time frame. I might also be able to exploit a time issue by sending them from different directions and the time for the launcher to swing through a 180 degree arc slows down the number of anti-missiles that can be launched. There are other was to overwhelm the defensive capabilities. The Iranians just pulled off a good one tricking GPS, real issue if you attack yourself that way.

I think that if Naval surface warfare was really a thing of the past, then every country with a navy would disband it and save some money. I didn't take Gary's comment too seriously and I don't think he or anyone else has :-)

CVN 78 & 79 are still planned to go ahead as far as I know.

There are expected to be ten ships of this class. To date, three have been announced:

Maybe Enland can lease a couple of the USA's carriers if push comes to shove. I've been reading that surface navies are obsolete for forty years. If Argentina had the capability to sink a fleet of surface ships they would have already tried. It's harder to attack and disable a carrier battle group than you think.
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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Not surface navies but the main line battle ship is clearly out of date. no sense sending out a 16 inch dumb round when you can fire a missile and hit your target with absolute accuracy.

Though I understand we used spotter planes the size of models with GPU locators as forward observers in Iraq
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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Skildude mate, we are in the 21st century now, there can't be many old style warships with those sort of main guns still being used on the frontline. If there are, they must be being rapidly replaced. And in any case missiles do not have to be launched in line of sight to their targets, they home in electronically or by heat seeking technology.

In 1955, the Missouri was decommissioned and mothballed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. But in 1986, the USS Missouri was recommissioned after undergoing an extensive modernization and refurbishment. In 1991, the Mighty Mo was deployed to the Persian Gulf where it fired its 16-inch guns and launched Tomahawk missiles against Iraqi positions during Operation Desert Storm.

what size were those guns again. Oh yeah 16 inches.

Big Mo was retired 1 year later
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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

In 1955, the Missouri was decommissioned and mothballed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. But in 1986, the USS Missouri was recommissioned after undergoing an extensive modernization and refurbishment. In 1991, the Mighty Mo was deployed to the Persian Gulf where it fired its 16-inch guns and launched Tomahawk missiles against Iraqi positions during Operation Desert Storm.

what size were those guns again. Oh yeah 16 inches.

Big Mo was retired 1 year later

Quite true. However, that was against a ragtag armed forces. Had it been against the old USSR or even Chinese forces, then & now, it wouldn't last very long. To get within range to fire those guns would have left it open to land based air attacks.

Billy Mitchell in the 1930's proved batleships are useless against air attack & he got castigated for that....it took the Japanese during WWII to explode the battleship myth when they sank HMS Prince of Wales & HMS Repulse by air attack alone.

As Bob D stated, it really isn't easy to attack a carrier task force, at least not at this time, in the future, then maybe.

But I'm pretty sure that by then, either the US or other western nations will have found a better solution.
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I( completely agree which is why I also previously stated that Main line battleships with 16 inch guns have been obsolete for majot combat operations since WWII. THe Japanese, American and German main battleships were sitting ducks when it came to air assaults.

Current battle ships have automated defense guns and missles as well as offensive missiles that are much easier to aim using the GPS onboard.
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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope